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Friday, May 4, 2007

Series Wrap-Up: Spurs-Nuggets

Spurs win series 4-1. There the Spurs go again, doing what they do. Only an idiot would have picked against the Spurs (my bad!). Following a surprising Game 1 loss to the Nuggets, Tim Duncan & Co. turned things around spectacularly, sweeping the last four games of the series. Duncan brought his “regular” game, averaging a rock-solid 20.2 points, 10.6 rebounds (3.6 offensive), 2.8 blocks and 5.4 assists per game; Michael Finley nearly doubled his regular season averaging, putting up 16 points per game, making an awesome 53% of his 3-pointers, including 8 of 9 in the Game 5 clincher; Robert Horry doubled his regular season scoring average, scoring 7.8 points per game against the Nuggets, and he pulled his usual “Big Shot Bob” act, hitting a clinching 3-pointer with 30 seconds left in Game 4; and Tony Parker averaged 18 points and almost 7 assists per game. In other words, this was a vintage, professional Spurs performance.

After stealing San Antonio’s home court advantage with an impressive showing in Game 1, the Denver Nuggets, due in large part to a disappointing performance from Allen Iverson, failed to recapture the magic for the remainder of the series. Iverson averaged just under 23 points against the Spurs on a nasty 42-for- 114 from the field (36.8%), and committed 15 turnovers against just 7 steals. Denver got a strong performance from Carmelo Anthony (27ppg, 48% FG, 8.6rpg, 3.6orpg) and from Marcus Camby (14.8rpg, 2.4orpg) and Nene (7.8rpg, 4.4orpg) on the boards, but the lack of production from AI, along with little support on the perimeter from Steve Blake (7.2ppg), LinasKleiza (1.6ppg) and J.R. Smith (4.5ppg), is just not going to get it done against a championship team like San Antonio.